It’s exhausting. The stories in my head. The imagined scenarios, assumed motives and relentless “what ifs” that make me question myself, think the worst of others and suck the joy out of life.
At a loss for words
Lament is truthful speech that names the fact that some of us are losing our sons and some of us are losing our souls and none of us can be whole until we change.
Grief fatigue: Are we really making a difference in the world’s healing?
Last week I had the opportunity to meet with a group of millennial social justice leaders who were meeting across the street at Union Theological Seminary. I probably shouldn’t have read their bios before I headed over to their closing…
Steady space in an unsteady world: Church and the power of place
In 1993, AT&T launched an ad campaign now famous for its accuracy about future technologies. The ad showcased video calls, tablet computers, eBooks, personal GPS navigation and the digital classroom. The central theme was the erasure of space. When checking…
Three ways family ties hinder us in our faith
The “faith of our fathers” offers a nice American ideal, but it also has become one of the key reasons adults fail to respond to the work of the Holy Spirit in their own lives. Those are likely startling words…
The Whore of Babylon: Pimping the Body of Christ to the highest political bidder
“God is on our side” has led to more bloodletting in the form of crusades, wars, colonialism and genocides than any other human caused catastrophe — a truth in which all faith traditions have, at one time or another, participated. All churches have played the “whore,” falling into the temptation of tailoring the liberative Good News to sell a political ideology or party as ordained by God.
Vote with our actions, love with our voices
If I asked which presidential candidate has been described as being “aided and abetted by the powers of darkness,” about whom would you guess this quote is referring too? Where might the quote have come from? Does the quote seem…
The parable of the black life
In his 2015 book Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes to his son, “In America it is tradition to destroy the black body. It is heritage.” Ever since I read, re-read and re-read again those words, I have…
Embracing the power of what we don’t yet know
Can we resist our native evangelical bent for clarity, certainty, closure, purity, decisiveness and (yes) judgment — at least long enough to simultaneously value listening, nuance, creativity and (yes) the fresh wind of the Spirit?
Grounded enough to notice when Jesus shows up
I love the city. I first fell in love with metropolitan life as a 20-something pastor in San Francisco. Now, years later, while I still retreat to the mountains or desert or ocean for some extra peace and inspiration, “urban”…
‘Old’ is just a new word
I was recently hit by a trio of insults regarding my age. Let me just say that for the purposes of this column, you don’t need to know how old I am. It is none of your business. (OK, if…
Nonviolence and a different future with God
“Deliver us from evil.” Most Sundays we pray these words, but rarely do they sound the resonance we hear in these anarchic days. Evil seems unrelenting, incapable of exhausting its ravenous power. Who can withstand its voracious appetite for destruction?